Messages in a Bottle
from Rudy Jones...
2009 is ‘The Time’... We Must Decide The Time for What?
2009 is ‘The Time’... We Must Decide The Time for What?February 14th, 2009 — I bring you good tidings of great joy, which is for all people, today. In my personal journey into this dimension of chronological time, I was given natural athletic ability. From day one I loved a ball. I had good hand-eye coordination which at an early age qualified me to play baseball. By age fourteen, I was recruited to play first base with the organized adult team in my community. In the 1930’s and 40’s, in the depression years, baseball was the major entertainment in our area. Baseball was sunshine and ice cream and apple pie.
The manager of our ‘championship team’ told my parents that I was the most naturally talented player he had ever coached. My parents never told me what he said for fear that it would “give me the big head.” At age seventeen, after high school, my parents agreed for me to sign a baseball contract to play baseball professionally and be paid to play. At that age and during those depressed times I was thrilled to be paid to do what I loved most. My parents were both working then and together earned $25 a week. After receiving a bonus of more money than we had ever had, I was paid $325 per month and all expenses paid. That, to us, was huge.
To make a very long story short... after only three years, I was in a running/sliding accident at second base. I tore the ligaments in my throwing arm shoulder. Angry at ‘God’ I didn’t persist in my dream. In baseball jargon, ‘I dropped the ball. I made a game losing error.’ Later, I allowed religious people to persuade me that ‘God’ had shut that door. Even though I was excelling in the game, I never once considered the options available such as surgery or learning to throw with my right arm.
I said all that to say this: I have learned that determination, focus and persistence are most honorable attributes. You can’t be defeated if you won’t give up. That background instilled a desire to determine for myself what the Christian experience offered as our goal in life. After years of Evangelical associations, I concluded that the ultimate goal was not to “make it” to Heaven some day. I discovered scriptures like: “Seek honor, seek glory and seek immortality” (Romans 2:7); “Thy Kingdom come in Earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10); “This mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53); “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind“ (Romans 12:2); “Christ brought immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10); “Your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colosians 3:3); “According as He hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world“ (Ephesians 1:4); “He called us by name before we were in our mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5, Isa. 44:2, 24).
I was taught from childhood by ‘mature’ ministry that things happen in God’s own time. But by comparing Scripture with Scripture, I have reached another conclusion. I have gained enough confidence to hear the ‘word’ of the LORD for myself and to begin “renewing my mind.”
I found in Galatians 4:4-5; “But when the fulness of time [chronos] was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons.” I found that the word ‘fulness’ in the original Greek language is ‘pleroo,’ and the meaning is: “to complete, to make replete, to use the last piece, to satisfy, to finish, to fill to the brim, to execute an office.” When Christ came, He finished chronos time and opened the door to kairos, which is the Quantum unified Kingdom of now and today. He instituted a Father Son intimate relationship and opened the Order of Adoption, i.e. the Placing of SONS. Religion has been waiting for something else to happen. Else and everything else has been waiting for the Sons. The ball is in our court. We are at bat. I dropped the ball when I was 20 — I don’t want to drop the ball again. The Spirit of Fulness is waiting for the Adopted Sons, who know and believe that death and life are in the tongue. Our Father formed Light with His Words; now we are His Words. The very first scriptural rule; “What you call it Adam, is what it will be” (Genesis 2:19 paraphrased). We were the first Adam. We are now the last Adam.
The Charles Schultz Philosophy
December 18, 2008 — The author of the Charlie Brown cartoon series suggests that we should remind ourselves regularly of those who have encouraged, challenged, or in any way been helpful to us; for example, teachers, neighbors, family associates, etc. — and take time to write them a note, or make a phone call, or in some way communicate your appreciation. Put a little LOVE in your Life.